"A federal appeals court rejected a shipping industry challenge Monday to California's offshore air pollution rules requiring vessels to use low-sulfur fuel within 24 miles of the coast, standards that the court said would save about 3,500 lives over six years while modestly increasing shipping costs."

"With birds chirping and temperatures warming , spring is finally in the air. But for University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) environmental chemist Torsten Meyer, springtime has a dark side."

"Big earthquakes over the last 30 years have not triggered global chains of massive seismic activity, U.S. scientists reported on Monday. But major quakes do trigger other big ones close by and smaller ones far away, researchers said."

"There's nothing new about studying animal sounds; ...  But Bryan Pijanowski is now asking his colleagues to take a huge step back and, metaphorically speaking, listen not just to the trees, but to the forest."

"Vegetation change underway in northern forests as a result of climate change creates feedback loop that prompts more warming, scientists say."

"Top U.S. nuclear regulators, scientists and industry leaders will flesh out details of the nuclear crisis unfolding in Japan and its implications for nuclear safety in the United States for key Senate and House energy committees this week."

The end of one Tsunami-hit Japanese whaling company could mean the end of a seaside town. In a variety of ways, the quake aftermath is transforming life in Japan. As the death toll mounts, power, water, and food are in short supply.

"The U.N. atomic energy chief called a Vienna summit to tackle mounting concerns about nuclear safety, saying on Monday the international community needed a coordinated response in the wake of Japan's crisis."

"Highly toxic plutonium is seeping from the damaged nuclear power plant in Japan's tsunami disaster zone into the soil outside, officials said Tuesday, heightening concerns about the expanding spread of radiation."

"In the country that gave the world the word tsunami, the Japanese nuclear establishment largely disregarded the potentially destructive force of the walls of water. The word did not even appear in government guidelines until 2006, decades after plants — including the Fukushima Daiichi facility that firefighters are still struggling to get under control — began dotting the Japanese coastline."